Passive Tilt and the Importance of Focus in Poker

Don't play poker when your confidence is low and your mind is scattered...

If you have taken the decision to move up to a higher stake game than you would normally play, watch for what we call “passive tilt”. This can seriously erode your winnings. How do you spot if it’s happening? Simple. If you lose the confidence to aggressively pursue a good hand. If you in any way feel intimidated by the raises that come into play at the new higher level you have chosen, you should call a halt before any damage is done. It’s easy to slip back to a comfort zone at a lower stakes level and re-group. The worse thing that can happen to any poker player is a loss of confidence. A higher limit game can often trigger it.

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